Fate! There is no fate. Between the thought and the success God is the only agent. Fate is not the ruler, but the servant of Providence.

We may observe in humorous authors that the faults they chiefly ridicule have often a likeness in themselves. Cervantes had much of the knight-errant in him; Sir George Etherege was unconsciously the Fopling Flutter of his own satire; Goldsmith was the same hero to chambermaids, and coward to ladies that he has immortalized in his charming comedy; and the antiquarian frivolities of Jonathan Oldbuck had their resemblance in Jonathan Oldbuck's creator.

The public man needs but one patron, namely, the lucky moment.

Revenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed.

To how many is the death of the beloved the parent of faith!

Better than fame is still the wish for fame, the constant training for a glorious strife.

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.